Search results

Reviews the perceived and actual threats to the book publishing industry arising from electronic storage, management and distribution of information. It argues that publishing has always been primarily a content‐management industry and if not entirely free from technological obsolescence, it has at least been relatively insulated from its worst effects by concentrating on the maintenance of quality and authority of the information it provides. Greater challenges may arise from other quarters, Including globalisation, threats to intellectual property regimes, and changes in retailing and distribution, and publishers must think about the impacts of these on their businesses.

The purpose of this paper is to report on a project undertaken at University College London (UCL) examining the role and value of the academic monograph – considering continuing decline in sales and usage – and its possible survival in the digital age.

A qualitative approach was adopted, in which 17 arts and humanities academics were interviewed in‐depth on their experiences and views.

The monograph continues to be of great value in the arts and humanities field, and is seen as essential for career progression. Much concern was expressed about the decline in quality of this and other forms of writing, with pressures of the university Research Assessment Exercise foremost in contributing to this decline. Reservations were expressed about moving towards digital versions of the monograph, although print‐on‐demand was considered to be a viable option to enable the continuing publication of specialist works.

This is the first in‐depth study of the role, value and future of the monograph from the viewpoint of the scholar, and so gives a unique insight into the scholarly communication behaviour of arts and humanities researchers.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the hidden social worlds of competent clandestine users of drugs controlled within the confines of the UK Misuse of Drugs Act 1971, which now includes NPS substances. The authors explore how and in what way socially competent drug users differ from others who are visible to the authorities as criminals by criminal justice bureaucracies and known to treatment agencies as defined problem drug users.

This qualitative research utilises a bricoleur ethnographic methodology considered as a critical, multi-perspectival, multi-theoretical and multi-methodological approach to inquiry.

This paper challenges addiction discourses and, drawing upon empirical evidence, argues the user of controlled drugs should not be homogenised. Using several key strategies of identity management, drug takers employ a range of risk awareness and risk neutralisation techniques to protect self-esteem, avoid social affronts and in maintaining untainted identities. The authors present illicit drug use as one activity amongst other social activities that (some) people, conventionally, pursue. The findings from this study suggest that punitive drug policy, which links drug use with addiction, crime and antisocial behaviour, is inconsistent with the experience of the participants.

Due to the small sample size (n=24) employed, the possibility that findings can be generalised is rendered difficult. However, generalisation was never an objective of the research; the experiences of this hidden population are deeply subjective and generalising findings and applying them to other populations would be an unproductive endeavour. While the research attempted to recruit an equal number of males and females to this research, gendered analysis was not a primary objective of this research. However, it is acknowledged that future research would greatly benefit from such a gendered focus.

The insights from the study may be useful in helping to inform future policy discourse on issues of drug use. In particular, the insights suggest that a more nuanced perspective should be adopted. This perspective should recognise the non-deviant identities of many drug users in the contemporary era, and challenge the use of a universally stigmatising discourse and dominance of prohibition narratives.

It is envisaged that this paper will contribute to knowledge on how socially competent users of controlled drugs identify and manage the risks of moral, medical and legal censure.

The evidence in this paper indicates that drug use is an activity often associated with non-deviant, productive members of the population. However, the continuing dominance of stigmatising policy discourses often leads to drug users engaging in identity concealment within the context of a deeply capitalist Western landscape.

The purpose of this paper is to describe a collaborative study on supervision with health and social care practitioners in Scotland. The study attempted to gain a better understanding about the use and benefit of supervision from a multiprofessional perspective.

Consultation events with health and social care staff and 12 informant interviews were undertaken. Data analysis was via the Framework Method.

Managers were more likely to conceive of supervision as a positive intervention than those in lower pay bands. The practice of supervision was variable. Not all staff appeared to take part in regular supervisory activities even when it was mandated. A lack of professional, organisational or local commitment to implement robust supervisory structures and processes was seen as the major barrier to effective supervision.

This was a small study, thus findings would need to be confirmed by health and social care staff working across a wider spectrum of disciplines and regions across Scotland.

A combination of factors would seem to determine effective supervisory practice. Supervision was perceived to be of benefit when individuals were willing to participate fully, when there was reflection and planned action, constructive challenge, respectful relationships, regular and protected sessions and processes were appropriate to an employee’s circumstances.

This study situates supervision in the current context of health and social care and finds it to be an irregular practice. The findings confirm the existing literature about the importance of supervisor-supervisee relationships but explain differing perceptions of supervision in terms of staff seniority.

This study identifies and ranks the appropriate critical success decision criteria (CSDC) for the bulk order distribution (sharing) amongst multiple manufacturers (suppliers) working as an extended enterprise (EE).

The study deploys a qualitative approach to generate the appropriate decision criteria. The balanced scorecard and Pareto's chart (using Minitab^® version 18) were used for gathering and analysing the pertinent criteria.

The process of evaluating and selecting the right manufacturers is essential. Manufacturer (supplier) selection is no longer decided solely based on cost/price criterion; currently, the quality and delivery criteria prevail. Additional incorporated criteria include price/cost, technical capability, production facilities and capacity, customer satisfaction and impression, geographical location, management and organisation, financial position, environmental concern, performance history, repair service, information technology and communication systems, procedural compliance, labour relation record, reputation, flexibility or diversification, attitude, operating controls, business desire, packaging ability, past business records, trust and loyalty, training aids, complaint handling service, warranties and claim policies, reciprocal arrangements, research and development and innovation, modern slavery concern, sustainable capability, collaborative/partnership and responsiveness. The study proposed a conceptual framework of an EE alongside how manufacturers working as a single virtual entity can consider the supply chain operations reference (SCOR^®) model.

The identified CSDC are suitable for order allocation to domestic manufacturers. The deployed approaches could be extended to the mixed and quantitative approaches for increasing the generalisability.

The study establishes the pertinent CSDC that are important to execute equitable order distribution to manufacturers in an EE framework.

The important role of comprehensive assessment in recognising the need for and organising often complex care regimes for individual older people is widely accepted. However, the process of carrying out such assessments continues to present challenges to those involved, as it frequently requires people to work in different settings and across professional and agency boundaries. This paper explores the situation in the light of current working practice and policy directives. More work will be needed if small‐scale examples of good practice are to be applied across whole systems.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has been studied as a neurodevelopmental disorder since Leo Kanner's early observations of abnormal head circumference in autistic children. In the past few years, there has been much progress made in elucidating the anatomical and functional abnormalities in ASD. This paper aims to summarise the extant research.

This paper provides a summary of relevant research findings in the neuroimaging of autism for the past 12 month period. Papers were identified using the Medline search terms: autism; ASD (functional); magnetic resonance imaging (MRI); neuroimaging; diffusion tensor imaging (DTI); and endophenotype.

Relatively recent techniques such as functional MRI and DTI have furthered the initial work derived from early histological and structural imaging studies. Even newer techniques, such as DTI tractography and support vector machine analysis, and other computer‐based learning methods have allowed us to move beyond regional variations in grey and white matter volume and study ASD as a disorder of connectivity, and of regional cerebral function and neural circuitry. Brain regions and neural circuits that are implicated in the core symptoms of ASD (deficits in social reciprocity, language and communication, and restricted and stereotyped interests) have been repeatedly shown to be abnormal in those individuals.

This paper aims to provide a background for clinicians to the current research and focuses on developments in the field of neuroimaging of ASD from the past year, which have generated further insights into the neurobiology of ASD.